Ramblings on three originally Dutch TR7's (a '76 FHC, an 80's DHC and an '81 Sprint powered FHC),
including the work done to them and their (ab)use all over Europe. With some of my other passions thrown in from time to time ...

Saturday, 19 April 2014

Last year
I obtained a pair of nice shiny alloy front hubs for 't Kreng in preparation
for another chapter in the cars continuing upgrades (and adding lightness). But
as a result of lots of other commitments they were stored away for future use. Most import reason for this
was that the front bearings fitted to
the car were still fine. But I also wanted to have them anodised before fitting
them. But you know how such things develop, as long as there is no pressing need
to repair something, nothing happens. But while preparing the car for the Nacht
van het Oosten in early March, I noticed that the right hand front bearings were
rather noisy. As there was no play yet I decided to take the gamble and leave
them for the time being. And all went well during the 500+ kilometres I did
over the weekend, but the bearings had become noticeable louder by the time we got
home. About time to change them, as I want to use the car for one of the
planned trips to Britain this Spring and/or Summer.

Before
fitting them, I first had to find a company to anodise the hubs. And thanks to
Robbie I found this locally in the town of Weert, in the guise of a company
called Aldor. And they did quite a nice job ...

So the
bearing renewal could start in earnest. I have to admit I postponed this job
several times as I really dreaded this. I knew it would be a real challenge to
get the bearings from the right hand side of. Those who follow my ramblings on
here know what I am referring to. For those who don't, please see post from 22July 2010 ...

And indeed
after removing the large nut from the axle stump the hub refused point blank to
come of. But luckily with the help of a flange puller, the hub came of after putting
up a fight for about 15 minutes. Only the inner bearing remained firmly in
place. This time I went for a different approach. To start with I booked some
time in a friends workshop for the next Wednesday just in case I needed heavier
equipment, after which I attacked the bearing race with the Dremel and a small
cutting disc to weaken it as much as possible. With the bearing race cut as
deep as I dared go without damaging the axle stub, I gave it two well aimed
blows with a flat chisel and hammer. This proved to be enough to release the
bearing race, a rather pleasant surprise to say the least. And as you can see
only very minor damage to the coating, and in a place where it doesn't really matter
...

And time
to inspect the bearing's damage in more detail. This is how a bearing looks
when you fit it incorrectly and get a few thousand miles on it. Needless to say
I paid much attention at removing the coating from the axle stub this time!

With the
bearing removed successfully it was time to switch my attention to the hubs
themselves. First the bearing races were tapped in with a hammer and drift,
followed by the studs. And with the first hub ready it was time to fit the
brake disc. Sadly here I encountered a rather unexpected problem. I ordered the
hubs as a direct replacement for the original ones, but when I put the first
bolt into the front of the hub it was clear that wasn't what I received ...

As you can
see the bolt head just fits in the recess, leaving no room for even the most
slender of sockets. And it got worse. The original bolts used by BL/Triumph are
3/8" UNC bolts with the bolts shoulder being a fairly tight fit in the
hub, as it should be. But the holes in the new hubs were drilled to M10 or
0,5mm to wide. Not good, especially when you are clamping two alloy parts
together with a steel bolt! Contacting
the supplier wasn't very helpful, and I wanted a quick and technically sound
solution. With the fine weather driving season about to begin, I wanted to
clear the drive to make room for the DHC as soon as possible . So I contacted a
friend to see if he could help with a solution. Not really, but he pointed me
to a small local company specialised in fasteners. I contacted them to see if
they could provide me with a set of 3/8" allen head bolts to secure the
discs temporarily so I could move the car and look for a permanent solution. They
could. But after explaining the problem to him he immediately came up with a rather
simple and permanent solution, actually the same solution I had in mind. It turned
out he also runs a small machine shop specialising in fasteners and parts for
classic mopeds. So he made me a set of allen head shoulder bolts, made from M10
bolts, cut down and machined so they now have the correct 3/8" UNC thread
combined with a M10 shoulder. Nice and simple ...

With the
bolts sorted it was time to fit the hubs to the car. OK there was a tiny
problem as three of the bolts looked like the didn't have the thread cut far
enough. But luckily a friend who lives nearby had the correct thread cutter, so
that was easily rectified. The rest of the work was rather straightforward - as
per the workshop manual - I'd say...

Wednesday, 9 April 2014

Received some pictures from
Habraken after the body shell came out of the oven and before it was shot blasted. As filler doesn't evaporate
completely this clearly shows any dents that were covered up. And as mentioned
earlier the roof has some nasty little dents ...

The same applies for both the rear wings ...

... and the nose panel ...

Will see what the body man has
to say about it all. A meeting is scheduled for tomorrow evening, to assess the
damage and the work involved, and also discuss the further planning.

Sunday, 6 April 2014

With the start of the FHC's
restoration I made myself a promise to use this project as an excuse to sort
through the parts I have collected over the years. The aim of which is to make
an inventory and store them away in a more orderly fashion. But also to get rid
of some of the parts that are really not good enough to re-use. Like two of my
spare body shells. And this weekend it was time to say goodbye to one of them,
a Speke built FHC shell.

I got this one cheap many years
ago and at first glance it looks pretty good and solid. But it was badly
butchered by a previous owner who tried to repair some accident damage to the
front chassis, cover some rust spots and fit a V8. He failed. But the shell had
what looks like a saveable boot floor and correct and solid early (large filler
cap) rear deck for the '76 FHC. And it will eventually donate its solid and
straight looking roof skin to fill in the rather big hole in 't Kreng's roof.

We also tried to save the rear
wings but didn't quite manage. Sadly they got damaged in the attempt. So we cut
them of, which did make things a bit easier. But they will nevertheless be
stored for future accident repairs, but hopefully I won't need them. Also left
the floor intact so it can be used as a template for the new carpets.

And we made a start on the
second body (a Solihull FHC shell), but after removing the roof it was time to
call it a day. This one should be easier to dismantles as only it's chassis
legs are worth saving. But despite that it was time for a few well deserved
drinks and a quiet evening ...